Touring shoes
 

I've tried to find retro-style touring shoes (not clipless system), but no luck. Does anybody have any leads on where to find these?

I bought a pair of Avocet shoes off of ebay. really nice shoes in 80's disco blue.
they work perfectly with clips n' straps and a nice quill pedal.
There are still UK and Italian touring shoes made but they cost a small fortune.
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Marty

I'm partial to indoor soccer shoes. The relatively plain black ones with a tongue that has a pocket for tucking the laces into. Not as stiff or efficient as cycling shoes, but much easier to find, and a bit less spendy.

The Nike indoor soccer shoes are about perfect for cycling. Stylish and lightweight, too. They don't work, however, for EE and wider feet, unless the risk of corns, bunions etc is warranted by accession to good looks. Sigh.

I wound up with New Balance Cross Trainers (size 11-1/2 EE).

Thanks everybody! I'll check into these suggestions. It sounds like some of you prefer toe clips too. Much more practical, in my view, for cycling in town. I could use just any old athletic shoes for that, of course, but my winter shoe covers will only fit over cycling-type shoes (plus my other athletic shoes just look wrong when paired with lycra). Thus, my search for a pair of retro touring shoes.

These are not what I'm looking for, but I thought some of you might like to see these anyway:

Retro touring shoes

I think I'm going to go with the dual sided pedals that are SPD on one side and take mtb shoes, and flat on the other so you can wear regular shoes if you so desire. The mtb shoes have a recessed cleat and you can walk in them.

Gotta admit though, I never thought of indoor shoes. Heck, I've only spent one day a week of the last 10 yrs at different indoor facilities.......................:o

This thread reminded me that I was going to post about these Diadoras at Nashbar. They're in the returns section, not sure why. Sizes 36.5 to 40.5, so perhaps too small for you.

http://www.nashbar.com/profile.cfm?c...0%2D%20Returns

http://www.nashbar.com/nashbar_photo...-NCL-ANGLE.jpg

Nice shoes, but yes, (as always), too small for me.

I found a pair of leather Born shoes on super-clearance at Nordstrom Rack several months ago. I think they're meant to be dressy shoes, but I (neatly) poked a bunch of holes in them and now they are awesome comfy bike shoes that work great in clips. The look quite a bit like these...

http://www.zappos.com/images/738/738...9-563965-p.jpg

I just bought a pair of Shimano touring shoes at Performance. They are brown and black suede. They can be used with or without an SPD cleat and pedal. Very comfortable, good looking, and they were on sale for 50 bucks.

[img]http://www.performancebike.com/produ...-BRN-ANGLE.jpg[/img]

I found these a long time ago. British made bicycle "Touring" style shoes for nail-on cleats, probably from the 1960s to 70s. The sole is backed with a steel shank and very rigid like modern road bike shoes... and since they are just as impractical to wear off of a bike, I'll probably never actually use them. ... But they sure do bring back vivid memories of the days when our cycling shoe options were VERY limited!


They got me thinking about modern lace-up casual shoes which might be suitable for riding with pedals like the MKS Sylvan Touring pedals - and even without toe-clips attached. Then I came across these casual retro shoes from Perry Ellis and bought them on sale a while back. They work great on traditional pedals - the ridges of the rubber soles actually grab the pedals as well as a slotted cleat. And they are comfortable to walk in too!


So now, like our brother cyclist yogurt reinventing the BORN Sherwoods, I catch myself looking for similarly suitable shoes, unintended as cycling-specific shoes, but coincidentally of a good useable design for the purpose. And I'm sure there are dozens of them out there waiting to be discovered.

With "Power Grip" straps on a set of conventional pedals, even an old pair of Stan Smith leather tennis shoes from Adidas would be a decent choice... anything with a rather flat and fairly supportive sole might work.

These look promising... and comfortable... and would be unique choices as cycling shoes!

Check out the NikeID site where you can custom order shoes. There are a couple under the 'sport' section with fairly flat soles and bumpers on the toes that might work. Plus you get to order cool colors.

I've had luck with flat-soled track spikes by Asics, without the spikes. They are light, comfortable, hold pretty well in clips, and cost about $40 last time I bought some. I did notice lately that a lot of track spikes have a prickly sole even without the spikes.